While the Casta system was flourishing in New Spain (Colonial Mexico) (1519-1821), a painters' guild emerged in order to classify the different ‘races’.
The painters' guild in New Spain paralleled the structure, purpose, and mobility of the Casta system they were representing.
[2] Therefore, despite the multitude of painters responsible for visually representing race in the Casta paintings, the images themselves seem similar enough to belong to a single artist.
The system was, in part, created to try and impose an order on a very messy reality – the mixing of ‘races’ between the Spanish, indigenous, and African peoples of New Spain.
However, similarly in the Casta system itself, there was corruption in the guild which allowed individuals to pay for a higher position even if the skill requirements had not been met.